Cliff "James Blonde" Wright wins the Canasta IOMI 2004 by an absolute mile. Controversy was always going to be the key word in this years CIOMI and the ever present barrage of "El Bandido" shouts prevailed. Cliff played exceptionally well, however, over the four day event and was a deserving winner.

This years competiton saw the addition of the famous Midlands Duo, Cliff and Trevor and it is with some discomfort that this reporter has to admit that the Northern Crowd did get a bit of a stuffing. It's sad to note that both Canasta Cups currently reside in the Midlands and it's going to be at least 6 months until that can be rectified. Perhaps a return match can be arranged sometime in early November - we can only live in hope.

Remarkably there was very little controversy this year. Terrytronic was, of course, bladdered beyond redemption every night which was always par for the course and the night he lost his business in one hand of Blackjack was particularly funny.

STOP PRESS

CONTROVERSY IN RE-COUNT ON RECENT MAJOR

The audited results of the Canasta I.O.M.I. have revealed a discrepancy
in the net scores
Trevor ' Tommy Cockles ' Ayliff , was only deducted 2 points on the final
days scores. Having won Day 2, and second on Day 3, the cumulative
deduction should be 3 points................
This has catapulted Roger The Whinge into 2nd place..............